H.O.R.S.E. Rescue and Sanctuary

Spring has arrived, sort of. Here we are at the end of the first week of March and are getting pounded by lots of snow. Daylight savings time starts this weekend and people in warmer climates are thinking of planting and mowing lawns. We are figuring out the best way to plow all the snow Mother Nature has left us. We are chomping at the bit to get started on all the projects we have to do but we have to sit and wait. We have the materials we need and are waiting for good weather and the ground to thaw. Chris has been working on more grants and the board of directors are all busy with new ideas for fundraising. Plans are coming together for the Annual Open House on September 7th. We will start our new membership drive in the next couple of months.

In February, we rescued a Neopolitan Mastiff from a Buffalo shelter that was scheduled to be euthanized because he was emaciated and wasn't eating. We couldn't say no and so he was brought in and we named him Charlie. We started feeding him by hand and three days later he was eating on his own. We boiled chicken and rice , venison and rice and hamburger and rice along with frozen vegetables. At first, we started him on four meals a day and now that he has gained some weight is down to three larger meals a day. Never having had a Mastiff before we found that the slobbering seen in the movie Turner and Hooch was no exaggeration. When Charlie eats or drinks and shakes his head everybody within range has learned to duck for fear of getting goobered. There is nothing in the house he hasn't goobered on. The walls, the furniture, computers, windows and us have all fallen prey to his drool. On the bright side, Charlie is extremely friendly and is one of the first greeters when volunteers arrive to do chores. He has never bothered the fifteen cats, two dogs or the twenty-seven horses. On the downside, Charlie likes to visit the neighbors. He makes sure that all the neighbors know him. He's quite the character and we have decided to keep him. Why? We don't know but Charlie is now part of the family. Each day he is gaining weight and getting healthier. He runs and now plays. He will most likely always be clumsy due to his size. When he has filled out he should weigh at least 150 pounds and maybe more but we no way to weigh him. He was a good 100 pounds underweight when he came in. You could count each rib. His hip bones stuck out and he was so weak all he wanted to do was sleep. As he gets stronger he likes going outside to explore. He is not neutered yet and we are waiting for him to get stronger before we have that surgery.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors we raised enough money to purchase a used manure spreader and a new two wheel cart to pull behind the tractor. Unfortunately, the tractor is now in the shop with a broken hydraulic pump. Hopefully, we will have it running in a couple of days. The weather has turned to record high temperatures this second week of January and we are once again faced with mud and no tractor. That means hauling hay and feed buckets to six pastures on plastic sleds. It takes us two hours to feed and water all the horses. At our age and with our physical limitations it's becoming more difficult to do just basic chores. The college students are still on Christmas break so most of the work is done by the two of us.

Winter has started out on a sad note. We lost old Sym to colic on the 1st of December. We had the vet out and tubed him with mineral oil and warm water. He was walked for four hours but we couldn't get him to respond to treatment and with Jean and her husband Vic at his side, Sym was euthanized at about 1:30 in the morning. Before he died Sym was given two oatmeal and raisin cookies which he loved and even though in obvious pain woofed down the last things he would ever eat. A week later, Fern, an animal communicator told us that Sym was supposed to pass on a year earlier but his spirit guides let him wait until he was reunited with Jean. We only had Symmy for four months but he was such a character and everybody here at the rescue misses him greatly.

The foundation check finally arrived by the 10th of December. We have purchased the new shelter and are awaiting delivery as soon as the ground freezes so the delivery tuck doesn't get stuck in mud. About 280 tons of stone has arrived and we bought pressure treated posts so we can finish the Electrobraid fencing installation. Of course, we have had lots of snow already which has really put a damper on construction but the electric we ran to all the pasture means the horses have heated water to drink this year. We bought heated water tubs for everyone of them and they are drinking lots of water which is a very good thing. No more carrying out five gallon buckets of hot water for the horses on plastic sleds. It has taken a long time but we feel that we are making a lot of progress..

On September 9th, work was started on installing six frost free hydrants in the pastures.. Two Girl Scouts took us on as their Silver Award project. Laura Kiefhaber and Valerie Spaeth from Cadette Troop 2009 and their parents started this project last winter when the snow was three feet deep. They came out with their parents and took measurements of how much water line we would need and where to place the hydrants. They worked hard all the following spring and summer asking for donation and securing the material needed. Finally, on the 9th everything came together and work was started on that Saturday. For the next two days on Sunday and Monday, it rained. We have clay here and of course when clay gets wet it sticks to everything. Laura's dad, Ed worked the excavator and after three days all the water line and hydrants were in place and the water was turned on at the last hydrant and everything worked just great. We had water for the first time since 1999. No more dragging 250' of hose out to the pasture. These two young ladies worked very hard and we are very grateful every time we turn a hydrant on.

On the 16th of September we held our ever annual open house. We were hoping or expecting 50-100 people but we estimated that well over 300 attended. All the volunteers were so excited that so many people came to see the horses. We had about eight vendors in attendance and everybody had a lot of fun talking to all the people. We had pony rides, live music and great food. We're looking forward to next year..

November 15th, we were notified that we were approved for a grant for $12,700 from a local foundation in the Rochester area. We had applied back on September 1st and hoping we would get maybe half of what we applied for but when the call came in that we were going to get the full amount Chris started screaming at the news. Now we would be able to put in more stone to eliminate more mud, purchase another shelter and buy more posts so we could finish adding the new pastures. It was a dream come true. It may turn out to be a very busy winter.

In late August we were notified that the Rush Campus of BOCES was closing down and were asked to remove our two equines fostered there for the last two years, Dillon and JR the mini donk. We were also asked to take four more horses which we did. When we went to the campus to view the horses, Jean Fiano accompanied us and thought one horse looked very familiar. No wonder he looked familiar and after researching her files discovered that Symmetry was her horse that she sold when he was six years old. He was the first horse she trained for show and to run into him again after twenty-five years was incredible. This was a no brainer so we brought all of them home. Dillon, JR and Cringle were placed the same day. We still have Sym, Dakota and Bailey. In talking with Fern Hilsinger, an animal communicator, she tod us that Rosie, who died on March 3, 2007 sent Bailey to Chris, since he is a palomino like Cham was. Bailey is ony sixteen but suffers from Cushings disease which is the same thing Rosie had. BOCES donated the remaining hay they had stored for the horses. We took out nearly 700 bales on Sept. 5th so we should be good for awhile, maybe two months if we stretch it. We gave a friend 160 bales since she is fostering five of our horses. We have been extremely busy getting ready for our first open house ever. Cleaning, painting, repairing everyday. We have no idea how many people to expect but we're hoping for a large turnout.

It has been a busy as well as a sad summer for us. We had another shelter donated for the horses in the rear pasture. A new two year old Standardbred gelding named Wise Guy joined our family and with him came Sissy, a very petite little kitty. On August 3, we lost our old friend Cham. He was too old and sick to want to go on anymore so we helped him cross the Rainbow Bridge where he is now transitioning in the affterlife free of pain. We miss him terribly. There will never be another Cham.

In late May, 2007, we received a phone call from a very concerned neighbor that six horses were not being fed including a new foal. This place was eighty miles from us and we asked one of our list members who happens to live within a half hour of this property to investigate for us. Cris Stewart went out of her to check on the horses and reported back to us that the complaint from the neighbor was factual and something needed to be done and soon. We were advised that the owner would take $500 for all five horses and since we had sold our 1941 Ford 9N tractor just two days prior for $500 we agreed to take them all except for the twenty-one year old stallion. The following Monday we asked Jean Fiano if she could haul a friend's trailer to pick up the mare and foal since they were the most critical. We didn't want to put all of the horses in the trailer together for fear that the foal might get stepped on. We purchased two bales of straw from another neighbor to line the floor of the trailer for the foal to lay on and the mare started eating the straw since she hadn't been fed for three days. The mare jumped on the trailer with no hesitation and the five day old foal followed her momma like a trooper. The ride back to the rescue seemed to take forever as we were going very slowly to prevent the foal from falling over and hurting herself. We kept checking on the foal every few miles and we never saw her lay down. She kept nursing the entire trip. Once we arrived at the rescue, we put the momma and new baby in a stall we had prepared the weekend before. The stall is 14'x26' and was filled with fresh shavings so momma and baby would be comfortable and dry. In no time, both had settled in to their new home and momma was happily eating hay and a special diet of grains that we prepared for her. The mare wasn't putting out much milk because of her poor diet but within three days momma was putting out enough milk to sustain the baby. This was a sad situation but it had a happy ending at least for the horses. The following Sunday, a hauler friend of ours picked up the remaining horses. All of the horses are now reunited and doing very well although they literally eat like horses. They never seem to stop eating and are always looking for more food as if they believe it will stop coming which will never happen. All of the horses are extremely friendly and will follow everyone around. They are also very curious about everything going on at the rescue. As of this writing, the horses have been here for two weeks and all are adding weight. The foal has grown six inches and runs around the 80'x80' paddock at full speed and like a human baby crashes for a much needed nap.

A very generous local woman donated a 1988 Zen-Noh tractor with a loader. The tractor is a compact model with 22 horsepower and a three cylinder diesel engine. This tractor has been a God send to us and makes our job much easier. We use it to feed all the horses twice a day by pulling a small 4 wheel cart and using the bucket we can take four bales of hay and all the feed buckets at one time. In addition, we use it to clean out the stalls and all the manure that has been accumulating in the pastures for years. Our next goal is to get a smaller manure spreader to pull behind the tractor. We would like to mention who the donor is but she has asked us to keep her anonymous and we will honor her request and extend our deepest thanks for your wonderful gift.

In early November, we received a $5,000 grant from the Maibaum Foundation in Rochester for facility enhancement. The grant was used to erase some of the mud problems we always have during the fall and spring every year. We purchased 378 tons of 5/8" crusher run stone and two rolls of road fabric. With the help of a rented tractor we spread out the stone in the barnyard, Zeke's stall, the 14'x26' stall next to the barn and the driveway to the rear pastures. We also did a portion of Rosie's stall but the ground was too wet to allow us to scrape out the mud in her stall. Hopefully next year we can reapply for additional funds that will allow us to finish Rosie's stall and the third corral in which we now have Muldoon and Khanty and add more to the driveway. Every time we feed the back pastures we have to go thru foot deep mud.

On November 22, the day before Thanksgiving we lost Mary. She had been laying down a lot lately and that evening she was having tremors and laid down for the last time. Mike was holding her head in his lap and Chris was on the phone to the vet when Mary had two last convulsions and crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Having twelve foals took a toll on her body. She was a very sweet girl and is missed by all the staff and volunteers who had the pleasure of knowing her.

The Royal Lipizzan Fundraiser is over and the dust is starting to settle a little bit. Every year, the week before the Lipizzans perform is a week filled with nothing but setting things up for them and this year was no exception. Finding a place to hold the event, advertising, putting up posters, rounding up enough chairs, finding sponsors and everything else takes a lot of time. Of course, all the horses at the rescue still need feeding twice a day. The show was a success as usual despite the heat. This is the first year since we have been hosting them that it hasn't rained but everyone who participated has a sunburn. We even supplied a rider, Elena Kurtz and five horse handlers each performance. Everything went well and we made a little money. Next year, we are thinking about the Buffalo area for the performances. There are a lot more people there.

We were very fortunate to receive a grant from Electrobraid Corp, the manufacturers of Electrobraid fencing. They supplied us with 13,200 feet of their wonderful fencing and all the related hardware except the fence posts which we have. So far over the summer and early fall we have fenced in the barnyard and one acre plus pasture in the back of the property. Mike tore his right rotator cuff in August and has to depend on volunteers to help with the remainder of the fencing. The fencing we have up so far looks really great and we intend to install the remainder of the fencing in the spring. All of the older wire fencing will be replaced and two more new pastures will be built.

This has been a really up and down year for the staff here at the rescue and we have not been able to mentally update the website recently. The unexpected death of Blue and our only foal born into the rescue in thirteen years, Desi, has left a huge vacuum from which we still have not recovered. We have been working on a memorial page for Desi and it's hard to write about him without becoming very emotional about him and his tragic accidental death. We placed his mother Dottie(now Dolly) with a wonderful caring woman named Randa in LeRoy, NY and had a chance to visit her at the beginning of June. She looked really good but it brought back the memories of her and and Desi which are still very painful. On a good note we received 13,200 feet of brand new Electrobraid fencing from the company including all the hardware we need to install it. We submitted an application and pictures of our existing electric wire fencing and once Andrew Bryson, vice-president of Electrobraid saw the pictures, he immediately called us and said we were very deserving of new fencing. We have installed some of the fencing and were working on the new pastures when our tractor blew some oil seals and we can't use it anymore. We are planning on having a post hole digging party soon using a two man post hole digger. Mike tried digging with a manual post hole digger but there's too much rock and shale to dig by hand. We had a brand new wood shelter donated by a person that wishes to remain anonymous and Lori and John Sozio from Lori's Natural Foods in Rochester donated all the materials and paint to build another just like it. In late May, John and Lori brought out about eight members of their staff from from the store and painted the plywood and built the framing for the new shelter. Mike and Chris and a couple of volunteers spent the next two weeks finishing the new shelter and finally Elvis and Jate were able to get out and stretch their legs in their new pasture with a brand new shelter. Needless to say they are very happy and have horsey friends on both sides of them to play with. In addition, Lori and John held a plant sale at their store and donated over $717 from the sale. Now they want to do a fall project and we're thinking of finally installing all the new Electrobraid fencing after all the weeds are brush hogged. It's really starting to look quite spiffy around the old rescue. This past winter was so bad that Len Burger came out with his backhoe and dug some big trenches for snow and rain runoff. This past winter and spring have been the absolute worse for mud that we have ever seen. We are still busy everyday doing cleanup and repairs and we usually don't get in until dark and are exhausted. We would love to have a tractor and loader. It would sure be an invaluable help around here but a tractor is not in our budget right now so we continue to toil by manual labor.

We have taken in a couple of new horses off the track. Girl Chaser and Paradise Chief are two Standardbred gelding that came to us after being injured. Paradise Chief is doing well but since he is now out to pasture with two lovely young mares, he has decided that he doesn't want to be caught for what we assume is a fear of having to race again. Girl Chaser or Chase as we call him is in with Paddy and Tootsie and is healing well and should be ready for placement soon. He is a very good looking boy. He's a little different from our other Standardbreds. He is a lighter bay with some gray on his legs and frosting in his tail. A very nice combination.

We apologize for not updating the newsletter sooner but so much has been going on.

all has finally arrived and with it has come much rain resulting in much mud. All the shelters but one have been painted and a new portable 12'x20'x8' run-in shelter has been installed with the help from the students of FoHR. We still need one additional smaller shelter added to the existing barn structure before winter and then we'll be set for awhile. We're not looking forward to winter but once everything freezes, the mud problem will go away until spring. The backyard looks like someone rototilled it so we will have to roll the lawn and reseed in the spring. Horses are very hard on grass especially Desi who insists on flying around the yard practicing his skid stops. He is almost as tall as his mother now and only six months old. All the horses have been getting sliced apples donated by Wegman's and they look forward to it everyday. Blue has learned how to knock at the door with his nose for his treats.

azz went to his new home with John who has been doing some training of the young horses for when weather permits. Jazz is enjoying being a trail horse along with his new pasture mate, Tramp and a dozen goats that John raises for milk and showing at the local county fairs.

addy went home on November 6 with Courtney Barren. Right now she is being boarded with a neighbor until Courtney and her parents can get a shelter built and fencing up. Paradise Chief came in the same day. He's a seven year old Standardbred gelding off the track with an injury to his left rear leg. We're hoping that in time, he will be sound to ride. He's a very mellow fellow but asserted his dominance in the herd with Mo, Missy, and Joy as his little band. He's a big boy at 16.1 hands but is very kind. He will need some groceries as we think he's about 150 pounds underweight. The way he eats, he shouldn't have any problems with gaining weight.

group of young ladies from Girl Scout Troop 2217 came out to the rescue on Sunday November 13 from 9:30AM to just past noon. They scooped poop and groomed horses. They had so much fun they actually want to come back again. They worked hard along with three adult troop leaders and are welcome back anytime.

Herrmann's Royal Lipizzans performed for us again on June 17,18 and 19, 2005 at the Genesee County Fairgrounds in Batavia. With rain threatening, we had a small group of fans on Friday night but Saturday and Sunday were good days. It was fun to see the stallions again and were able able to renew our friendship with the Herrmann family again. Sadly, Col. Ottomar Herrmann passed away on Labor Day, an hour after the last show but Gabby, his daughter took over and the show went on without a hitch. We're looking for ward to them coming back next year. It should be around the last week of June but we won't know for sure until January, 2006 when they make their schedules up.

t's A Boy!!! On Friday night, May 6, 2005 at 10:30 PM, a bouncing baby boy was delivered by Dottie, our rescued Arab mare that came to us in foal, although we didn't realize it until the last couple of months. Dottie was purchased at auction by a lady named Mary just to save her from going to slaughter. At some point in her life, Dottie received a very serious injury which caused her left front leg to become crooked. She walks with a limp and was very scared when she first came to the rescue. After months of handling she learned to trust us. It was destiny that brought her to us and that gave us another victory over the kill buyers. We have christened him with the name Destiny's Victory. Here are a couple of photos shot a few minutes after his birth and one the following morning.

very special thanks go out to the DelVecchio family in Ionia, NY. Thanks to their generosity of 75 bales of hay and a "new" 1942 Ford Model N tractor and last but not least, a 1986 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 pickup with a fairly new motor, transmission and brakes. These old tractors are work horses and parts are still readily available. It needs a little valve work but should last many more years.

he Oliver's Candy fundraiser concluded February 23rd. The volunteers sold 1400 candy bars and the Rescue raised $700 from their efforts. We are planning another sale before the end of the school year and one more in the fall.

n late February, we responded to an urgent message on our mailing list from Jodi Nolan in Gettysburg, PA about some horses that were being starved and had no water. There was a paint gelding, a Belgian mare and a Percheron mare plus assorted dogs, pigs and rabbits. We contacted Amy and Thane from Meadows of Mendon Stable about the gelding as he seemed right for their therapeutic riding program. The price was right and they elected to head off for Gettysburg to pick him up. At 10:00 P.M. on the 19th, we got a call from Jodi and she told us that Amy and Thane had just left with the gelding and the Belgian mare. We left two messages on their voice mail and were getting very anxious until we got a call late Sunday saying they had arrived home safely. Amy was shocked at their condition and was wondering if they would survive. On Tuesday, the 22nd, we went to their farm to check out the horses and judged them both to be about a 3 or 3.5 on the Henneke scale. We assured Amy that they would make it, so long as there wasn't anything going on physically with them that only a vet could tell. Both have been exposed to strangles and the vet won't come out for fourteen days. We took some pictures of them and will post them as soon as we get the film developed. This adventure was Amy and Thane's first venture into the world of rescue and Amy was visibly upset by what she saw.

o much for being a mild winter!!! In the third week of January we were pounded by more then twenty inches of snow and sub freezing temperatures. We had to go and buy three more stock tank heaters to keep the water from freezing. This is also the first time that we put blankets on the horses this year because of the -20 wind chill factor. We have started adding a tablespoon of trace mineral salt to their feed so they will drink more. The footing is finally better with all the snow so they are getting around more.

ore good news!!! Friends of H.O.R.S.E has been sanctioned as an official club recognized by the college at SUNY Geneseo. They have about 80 members and volunteer here at the Rescue. It also means that they can do fund raising and hold other official events on the campus to benefit the Rescue. We have had some preliminary meetings with their Board of Directors and there are some exciting things in the pipeline. Thanks to Julia, Becca, Josh and all the members for taking us under your wing.

o far, winter has started out rather mild and wet. We've had a lot of rain and of course with rain comes mud. Cookie the Hackney pony that came in with severely overgrown feet grows his heels at an incredible rate. We had him trimmed December 6 and by January 5, they were overgrown and his heels were curled under. We have never seen a horse or pony with feet that grow so fast. He will need trimming every two to three weeks. Dottie(an Arab mare with a crooked front leg), Tess, and Caddie will be going to a great foster home in Branchport soon. Hopefully at least one of them will find a permanent adoptive home. We have pending placements on Beauty and Elvis as well. That's not bad considering it's the dead of winter when placements are typically slow. We placed Dillon and J.R. at BOCES in Henrietta on a temporary basis on November 2, 2004. From the feedback they may be permanent residents and help with the special ed kids that attend school there.

oday, January 6, we are getting our first significant snow fall. So far, there's about five inches on the ground and it's still coming down. The weather report has another storm behind this one, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

ike retired on December 31 at age 62 and now has less time that he did when he worked. There's lots of projects to do with the rescue but it's tough in the winter. He will be working part time somewhere as Social Security doesn't make one rich.

hat's about all for now but since we are less than half way thru winter, we're sure there will be more news from the Rescue soon.

ummer has come and gone. It was a cold summer and we are hoping for a mild winter but in this part of the country, no one knows. We actually had more warm days in a row during September than we did all summer. We are now preparing for winter, if that's possible.

his was another busy summer. We took in Molly, Cookie, Babe, Honey, Elvis, Dillon, Beauty and J.R.. So far, Molly has been placed with Bonda and Beauty and Dillon are pending placement and should be going home in the next few weeks. By far, the hardest rescue we have ever done was bringing Honey home. She would not load in a trailer so the staff, along with seventeen SUNY Geneseo students walked her the fifteen miles from south Geneseo to the Rescue in Pavilion. It took a total of five hours to get her home and everyone was exhausted, including Honey. She has settled in nicely and has been reunited with her longtime friend Babe. They both have fallen for the big black guy, Beauty, and it's fun to watch them trying to lure him away from the other one.

ow that school is back in session we have our Geneseo students back and we have more volunteers than we have ever had. On September 24, 25 and 26th, Julia Kogut, President of Friends of H.O.R.S.E., held an orientation here at the Rescue for any student interested in helping out this year. Seventy students showed up! We were overwhelmed by the shear number of them. There were people everywhere, especially on Sunday when we had fifty people here. Julia had everything organized and the students broke up into three large groups and met all the horses and were told what needed to be done in the care and feeding of the horses. Starting the week of October 4th, there will be 3-5 students per shift here to feed. Others will come to help on special projects such as building, repairing or painting as needed. On Saturday, Oct. 2, a group of them will be here using their free weekend cell phone minutes to call past donors in the hope of raising much needed funds to get the Rescue through the winter. We'll let you know how that turns out.

The Meaning of Rescue
Now that I’m home, bathed, settled and fed,
All nicely tucked in my warm new bed,
I’d like to open my baggage, lest I forget.
There’s so much to carry - so much to regret.

Hmm...Yes, there it is, right on top.
Let’s unpack Loneliness, Heartache and Loss;
And, there by my lead hides fear and shame.
As I look on these things I tried so hard to leave
I still have to unpack my baggage of pain.

I loved them, the others, the ones who left me..
But, I wasn’t good enough - they didn’t want me.
Will you add to my baggage?
Will you help me unpack?
Or, will you just look at my things -
And take me right back?

Do you have the time to help me unpack?
To put away my baggage, to never repack.
I pray that you do - I’m so tired you see.
But, I do come with baggage -
Will you still want me?

-Unknown

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